Monday, November 5, 2012

This week we are happy to have a talented group of guest bloggers tell us about the archaeological work being done at the Malcolm X House. U Mass Archaeological Services has been working on the house since last spring. However, this is not the dusty archaeological work that we see in movies. The work being done at the Malcolm X House is state of the art, and is going to lead to a better understanding of the house and it's history, without physically disrupting it at all.

Boston is the only American city that can claim a house
where Malcolm X actually lived. Other than a small bronze plaque in its front
yard, there is little to distinguish the house at 72 Dale Street from its
neighbors. During his repeated and
extended stays between the 1940s and 1960s at the home owned by his half-sister Ella Little-Collins, Malcolm X moved into and out of a life of petty crime; over time he
converted to Islam and assumed a leadership role in the Nation of Islam. Since
May 2012, U Mass Archaeological Services has worked with the house owner and with Historic Boston, Inc., to
explore how portions of the house and property may be rapidly and accurately
documented to preserve existing architectural information before a planned
rehabilitation occurs. Our group is also interested in exploring how the
documentation may be used as a public interpretive tool.

The project involves applying and integrating different
documentation technologies to develop a digital model of the property that can
then be explored in much the same way as a CT scan. The above-ground component involves
laser scanning, a survey method that documents millions of surface points that
can be used to generate a digital 3D model. Next, we plan to use various
methods of geophysical survey to document below-ground resources which will be
integrated with the above-ground data. The resulting site model can produce a
number of products that include Computer Assisted Drawings (CAD) plans
documenting the structure and surrounding property. The data can also produce a
walk-through model of the house providing, in effect, a virtual house tour. While saving wear and tear on the building’s
historic fabric, this will allow virtual ‘access’ to restricted parts of the
house and will enable global access to this property for public outreach and
education.